05 Jul 2026 10:43:11
The decline of unstructured street football hinders overall youth player development. By losing jumpers for goalposts children miss out on critical hours of daily autonomous decision-making and creative problem-solving that structured coaching environments simply cannot replicate.
I am calling for the parents and government to bring this back and make street football a thing again, because if we don’t, football will continue to decline. We aren’t producing the players we used to and it sucks.
The players are like robots now, no skill, no style, no chip on their shoulders.
When Rooney was 16 he was tougher than a lot of men. These 16 year olds now are soft as butter, more like 11 year olds than 16. Street football would toughen them up.
I coach 14 year olds that can’t do keepy ups and have never played headers and volleys. That surely can’t be right.
We need to find a way to get kids playing again.
{Ed025's Note - im with you Dino..
05 Jul 2026 12:01:37
Could be something in that Dino.
They're coached to death from 6 years old.
Sometimes think we'd be better off scouting non league teams for raw talent and then putting them in the u21s to see who progresses.
05 Jul 2026 13:01:02
A lot of kids these days are glued to phones and technology. When I was a lad I was out playing football for 2-3 hours most evenings. You don't see stuff like this anymore.
05 Jul 2026 18:30:00
I remember at the infants/junior school. We were all football mad and if we couldn't get hold of a football, we used a tennis ball in the yard. Learn to control, pass and shoot with a tennis ball, then it gives you great control of a proper football.